Ingot-handling mechanism



Dec. 29, 1959 F. L. TOCHER INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 17, 1955 o o: o 0 0 0 x!!! ii... In

INVENTOR. FPAA/K L 700/5? A TTOR/Vf Dec. 29, 1959 F. L. TOCHER INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM Filed June 17, 1955 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 @242 26 F. TOCHER INGOTHANDLING MECHANISM Dec. 29, 1959 Filed June 17, 1955 INVENTOR. FPA/V/f Z. Toe/7'5? BY ATTO/Q/VB Dec. 29, 1959 F. TOCHER 2,919,011

INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM Filed June 17, 1955 e Sheets-Sheet 4 Dec. 29, 1959 F. L. TOCHER INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed June 17, 1955 A m m w.

Dec. 29, 1959 F. L. TOCHER INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM s sheets-sheet 6 Filed June 17; 1955 INVENTOR. FQ/l/V/f Z. 750% ArmkMfV United States Patent 1 INGOT-HANDLING MECHANISM Frank L. Tocher, Morris Plains, N.J., assignor to M. H.

Treadwell Company, llnc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application June 17, 1955, Serial No. 516,154

10 Claims. (Cl. 198 33) This invention relates to improvements in mechanisms for making up rows or layers of parallel ingots of cast metal such as, for example, cast aluminum, in preparation for super-imposing or stacking such layers with the ingots in alternate layers in right-angular relationship. More particularly, this invention comprises an improved ingot-handling mechanism including means which may turn over alternate or selected ingots during formation of a layer or row of them so that ingots, which are usually trapeziform in cross section, will nest intimately alongside each other to form a compact layer.

The foregoing statement is indicative of the principal object of this invention which, in its broader aspects, includes turn-over devices adjacent to a conveyor and some selection means such as, for example, cam-actuated arms so controlled as to cause the turn-over devices to aid in overturning one ingot being conveyed while leaving unaffected the adjacent ingots on the conveyor.

A single, preferred embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawings for illustrative purposes without, however, limiting the invention to that particular embodiment.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic side elevational view of an ingot-handling mechanism according to a preferred embodiment of this invention, showing also certain related apparatus.

Fig. 2 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 1, showing further details; a drive chain and spockets turning with said chain being omitted.

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view substantially as viewed from the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; some background parts being omitted for clarity.

Fig. 4 is a Vertical cross-sectional View substantially on the line 44 of Fig. 2; some background parts being omitted for clarity.

Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view substantially on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2; some background parts being omitted for clarity.

Fig. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view substantially on the line 66 of Fig. 2; some background parts being omitted for clarity.

Fig. 7 is a side elevational view of a stack of ingots, layers of which have been formed with the aid of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a side elevational diagram of a turnover conveyor, illustrating the coaction of ingot pushers, and turn-over dogs with an ingot which is to be overturned.

The illustrative mechanism shown in the drawings comprises, as best understood from Fig. 1, a transfer mechanism 10 arranged to receive cross-sectionally trapeziform, cast ingots a from molds 12 associated with a chain-type mold conveyor 14 and deliver said ingots in side-by-side, spaced relationship to a continuously driven chain-type conveyor 16 of a turn-over mechanism generally indicated at 18, with the larger parallel surfaces of the ingots facing in the same direction, either upwardly or downwardly, but preferably upwardly as herein disclosed. The turn-over mechanism is juxtaposed to a chain-type receiving conveyor 20 on which is compactly formed a layer of ingots, some of which have been overturned by the mechanism 18 to enable the members of said layer to set closely together.

Certain ditficulties have been encountered in the past in transferring ingots from one conveyor to a lower receiving end of another conveyor, and, as a part of an operation of turning over only some ingots of a series of them on such a lower conveyor, the present invention includes improved means for receiving cast ingots from molds associated with a mold conveyor and transferring those ingots to such a lower-disposed conveyor of a turnover mechanism. It may be said that one difficulty with such ingot-transfer mechanisms developed previously to the present invention has been that ingots of certain metals tend to lose some metal upon stationary ingot guides upon which such metal builds up and quickly interferes with operations.

Another difiiculty appears to be that, in prior transfer mechanisms, ingots of different metals have behaved dilferently when passing through the transfer mechanism, ingots of some metals being transferred satisfactorily while ingots of other metals have not been passed through such prior transfer mechanisms in a satisfactory manner. Obviously, it is desirable to provide a transfer mechanism which will function satisfactorily with reference to all, or at least a very wide variety, of cast metals, and this objective is achieved by the transfer mechanism which forms a part of the present invention.

The transfer mechanism 10, which is shown largely diagrammatically in Fig. 1, includes a tilted, chain-type, transfer conveyor 22 suitably supported below the discharge end of mold conveyor 14 and above the receiving end of turnover conveyor 16. The chains constituting conveyor 22 work upon opposed pairs of sprocket wheels 24, 26, suitably carried respectively on shafts 28 and 30 borne in bearing-blocks 32, 34, which, in turn, are suitably supported by an adjacent member of a frame 36 which, as will be well understood, also supports various other parts of the disclosed mechanism. The bearing-blocks at one end of this conveyor, for example, blocks 34, may be slidably mounted as indicated at 38 and have adjusting screws 4t]? associated therewith to enable conveyor 22 to be maintained at a proper degree of tightness.

Mold conveyor 14- is driven by means, not shown, and an endless drive chain 42 is arranged to work upon sprockets 44, 46, 48 and 4 9, the first said sprocket being constrained to turn with mold conveyor 14 and the three other sprockets, respectively, being arranged to drive transfer conveyor 22, a supplemental transfer conveyor 62 and turn-over conveyor 16. The relative sizes of the three last-mentiioned sprockets are such that conveyors 22, 62 and 16 will operate at speeds such as will enable them to function in the manner hereinafter described. The drive chain 42, preferably, has one or more tighteners associated therewith, as indicated at 50, 52 and 53.

The cast ingots, preferably, are knocked out of molds 12 by a suitable knock-out mechanism (not shown) just as the latter arrive at a point where conveyor 14, at the upper end of its lower run, is leaving the upper-end supporting sprockets of said conveyor. Thus, the ingots are ejected angularly and rightwardly as illustrated in Fig. 1. For this reason, among others, it is not feasible to eject the ingots directly from their molds onto the turn-over conveyor 16. The tilt or angularity of the transfer conveyor 22 is approximately at a right angle to the line of ejection of the ingots from the molds so that, when an ejected ingot is received by the transfer conveyor 2.2, the ingot rests with the larger of its two parallel sides in contact with the last-mentioned conveyor.

The angularity of conveyor 22, however, is such as to require the provision of means which will assure that the ingot will move downwardly as the conveyor moves and that it will not slide downwardly on the conveyor. Therefore, the conveyor 22 is provided with a plurality 'of similar, transverse, ingot-retaining plates 54 preferably having flanges 56 by means of which, with bolts 58, -said plates may be secured to brackets 69 which, with respect 'to each plate 54, are attached to separate links of the conveyor 22.

It may be seen from Fig. 1 that the plates 54 prevent downward sliding of the ingots on the conveyor 22 and also restrainthe downward movement of the ingots for a time while the latter are being guided to conveyor 16 by supplemental, chain-type, transfer conveyor 62. The transfer conveyor 22, preferably, is also provided with plural side plates 64- which, as best seen in Fig. 6, may be bolted or otherwise suitably fixed upon the conveyor 22, at opposite sides of the latter, between successive plates 54 so that successive plates 54, together with opposite side plates 64, form receptacles or baskets for receiving the ingots from the molds. I

The supplemental transfer conveyor 62 is disposed with its upper end in position for receiving ingots which are leaving conveyor 22 without permitting any material uncontrolled gravitation of the ingot during its transfer from conveyor 22 to conveyor 62. Thus, the upper end of the conveyor 63 may include a pair of sprockets 66 suitably supported for rotation in the frame 36. The lower end of conveyor 62 may include a pair of toothless sprockets 68 which, likewise, are suitably supported for 'rotation in frame 36. As illustrated, the sprockets 68 are only slightly larger than sprockets 70 which constitute a part of the receiving end of turn-over conveyor 16, the latter having similar sprockets 72 at its discharge end.

Associated with the supplemental transfer conveyor 62 are a pair of conveyor-adjusting sprockets 7d rotatably carried on the free ends of arms 76, the other ends of which are keyed to a rock-shaft '78 suitably supported on frame 36. Also keyed to said rook-shaft is another arm 81), and between the free end of thelatter and an anchorage 82, at a suitable point on frame 36, is'connected a tension spring 84-, a turnbuckle 86 being employed as a link at one end of the spring 84 to permit adfiustment of the tension of said spring and of the force with which the adjusting sprockets '74 are applied to the chain conveyor 62 from the said spring through said arms '76 and 8%.

It may be seen from Fig. 1 that the adjusting sprocket 74- and, more particularly, its related turnbuckle 86 may be so adjusted that the conveyor 62, partly because of its own weight and partly from the weight of ingots being carried on the upper run of said conveyor, will form a more or less arcuate and relatively frictionless sides facing downwardly. In the latter arrangement, as'

the ingots are pushed together, they internest very closely so that a given number of such ingots in a layer will occupy less horizontal space than in first of the two just-mentioned arrangements. Thus, there is an obvious advantage in providing, as does this invention, means by which alternate ingots may be turned over automatically as they move along the turn-over conveyor 16. The turnover mechanism is hereinafter described in a form adapted thus to turn over alternate ingots, although it will be understood from the later descriptive matter herein that the present invention may be utilized to turn over some, but not necessarily alternate, ingots in a series of ingots passing along the conveyor 16.

The means by which an ingot is turned over on conveyor 16 operates on the principle of opposing or retarding the forward movement of the bottom part of an ingot on conveyor 16 while the upper part of that ingot is forcefully pushed forwardly. While this principle is simple, the means by which it is put into'operation is involved with problems of which the principal problem is probably that of enabling the mechanism to perform a turn-over operation on one ingot while preventing it from performing a turn-over operation on another ingot in a series.

The turn-over mechanism includes a pair of dog-carrying arms 9% integrated by a cross-piece 92 and pivoted at their rearward ends at 93 in bearing-bosses 94 suitably fixed to angle-banlongitudinal members 96 which are integral parts of the frame36. Toward the forward ends of the arms $0 are pivotally mounted two pairs of turnover dogs or tumblers 98 and 100. These dogs are pivoted to the arms 91? at their rearward ends, as shown at 11%2 and 1% respectively. Projections 1%, 198, formed on the arms 9d, constitute stops which limit the counterend with the rearward ends of arms )0.

Arms are caused to pivotally rise andfall between their two positions, indicated in full lines and inbroken lines in Fig. 2, by a cam wheel 118 which is carried on and constrainedlto turn with a shaft 120, suitably. journaled in frame 36. The irregularly contoured periphery 122 of this cam wheel engages a cam roller 124, ro'tatably mounted in cross-piece 92, to cause such pivotal rising and falling of arms 91 One end of shaft 120. may

advantageous have a hand-wheel 125, keyed thereon to enable an operator-to set cam wheel 118 in its proper angular position to start properly a formingoperation for a number of layers of ingots making up a complete bundle or stack of ingots. 7

Cam wheel 118 isintermittently given short, clockwise movements (as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2) by a ratchet wheel 126 which is carried on and turns shaft said ratchet wheel being intermittently actuated by a pawl 128 pivoted at 130 to an oscillating, actuating arm 132 -which is freely, pivotally carried at its lower end on shaft 129. The upper end of arm 132, hook-shaped to avoid conflict of movement relatively to the pivotal mounting of arms 90, is preferably equipped with an anti-friction roller 134. Separate, adjustable abutment screws 136 and 138, suitably related with a part of frame 36, abut opposite sides of arm 132 and thereby serve positively to limit oscillatory movement of said arm between its raised and lowered positions shown respectively in full lines and broken lines in Fig. 2. A counterweight 140, adjustably secured to a substantially horizontal arm 142 which is fixedly associated with arm 132, urges and holds the latter normally in its raised are suitably fixed to the frame 36. The tightness of said chains is controlled by adjusting screws 148, 150 which determine the positions of horizontally slidable bearingblocks 152, 154 which support sprockets 7t), 72, and by tightening wheels 156, 158 which engage the undersides of the lower runs of the chains of conveyor 16 and are carried on corresponding ends of levers 160, 162, the latter being intermediately fulcrumed upon shaft 164, suitably borne by the frame 36, and opposite ends of said levers being adjustably linked to the frame by turnbuckles 166, 168.

From this point in the description, the turn-over mechanism may best be understood from Fig. 8 with occasional reference to other figures for details. As already mentioned, conveyor 16 is continuously driven in the direction indicated by arrows by drive chain 42. The two chains constituting the conveyor 16 have plural pairs of ingot pushers 170 pivoted in corresponding or pair positions on the outer sides thereof. Only one such pusher is shown in Fig. 2 but it is hereinafter explained how such plural pushers are spaced throughout the lengths of said chains. It may be considered that only one such pusher is shown in Fig. 8, but the latter figure shows, in broken lines, the manner in which such pushers operate.

Each pusher 170 comprises a plate 170a, pivoted at point 170]) to conveyor 16 and having rollers 1711c, 176d and 170e where indicated. The manner in which these pushers are carried by conveyor 16 may best be seen in Fig. 4, which also shows, in cross section, certain pusher-positioning guides which are similar and similarly arranged at opposite sides of coveyor 16. These guides are bars which are suitably fixed to frame 36 and such guides on the front of the apparatus (as viewed in Fig. 2) are shown diagrammatically in Fig. 8. .They comprise an upper guide rod having a horizontal portion 176 which closely parallels the upper run of the front chain of conveyor 16 and an integral semicircular portion 178 which closely parallels the forward semicircular run of said chain. The front side pusher guides also comprise a lower guide rod closely parallel to the lower run of said chain and having a main horizontal portion 180 and offset portions 182, 184, 186 and 183, as shown in Fig. 8.

When a pusher 170 is being carried by conveyor '16 adjacent to semicircular guide portion 178 and along horizontal, upper guide portion 176, the rollers 170a and 170d straddle the upper guide rod so that the roller 1702, when the pusher is on the upper run of conveyor 16, is firmly supported above said conveyor and in pushing position in back of an ingot on said conveyor. When the pusher has pushed or followed an ingot on the conveyor, as hereinafter described, and has reached the back end of said conveyor, the rollers 1741c and 17th:? clear the upper guide bar, whereupon the pusher 170 pendulater. to a more or less vertical attitude in which it remains while being carried to the lower run of conveyor 16.

When carried by the lower run of conveyor 16, the pusher 170 is guided and supported by guide parts 182 and 180 to and in a more or less horizontal position. As the pusher approaches the forward end of the lower run of said conveyor, roller 170d at the heavier end of the pusher rides down into ofiset portion 184, then up on offset portion 136, at which point the rollers are again brought into straddling relation to upper guide portions 178 and 176 to cause the pusher to repeat its described movement with the upper run of said conveyor. It may be understood that the roller 170e, when the pusher is moving in the upper run of the conveyor, projects upwardly of the latter to a substantially non-variable extent into abutting or pushing relationship with ingots on the conveyor. v

Having explained the manner in which the pushers 1741 are carried, guided and supported in upright pushing position, it is now appropriate to explain the operation of the turn-over mechanism. This can best be understood 6 from Fig. 8 with help from Fig. 2 and perhaps from other figures, by considering how a single ingot a is progressively moved from the left to the right end of conveyor 16, meanwhile being overturned. The various positions given to the ingot in this movement and overturning are indicated as a1, a2, a3, etc.

The design and adjustment of the mechanism are such that as the ingot passes from supplemental transfer conveyor 62 (Fig. l) to conveyor 16 as shown at all, two paired pushers 170 on the two chains of the latter conveyor come up into pushing position in back of the ingot. Assuming that cam roller 124 (Fig. 2) is on a high spot of cam surface 122, dog-carrying arms 10 are in their raised position and paired dogs 98 and paired dogs 100 are in their full-line raised positions of Fig. 8. In references hereinafter to dog 98 and dog 100, it should be understood that two dogs coact in unison with the ingot toward opposite sides of conveyor 16 and that two dogs 100 also coact in unison with the ingot toward opposite sides of said conveyor; also that pushers 1711 are not in longitudinal or interfering alignment with dogs 98 and 160.

When the ingot reaches position :12, the lower part of its leading side abuts projection 98a of dog 98 whereby the ingots bodily, forward movement is arrested. Pusher 170, however, continues moving forwardly with conveyor [16 and the pushers roller 1702, effective at a higher level than pivot point 102 of dog 98, forces the ingot to its position a3, pivoting dog 98 with it as indicated until dog $8 abuts the adjacent end of dog 1%.

With this partial overturning of the ingot, roller 17% comes into engagement with the bottom or small side of the ingot and continued movement of the pusher causes the ingot to be pushed from dog 98 to its a4 position on dog 100 where the ingots then lower, leading edge abuts projection 100a of dog 1%, whereupon forward, bodily movement of the ingot is again arrested.

The pusher 1741, however, uninterruptedly continues its forward movement, so the pushers roller .170e imparts a further angular or overturning movement to the ingot to its a5 position, the dog 5.00, at the same time, pivoting until it engages stop or projection 110. By this time, however, the ingots center of gravity has passed beyond its then lowermost edge so that the ingot gravitates angularly to its a6 position with its lower leading edge resting on conveyor :16, and the ingot is then ready to become completely disassociated from dog 100 as the pusher 1179 continues to push the ingot.

It may be noted that when the dogs 98, 109 are in their upper pivotal positions, the greater parts of their weight are leftwardly of their pivot points so that they gravitate angular-1y back to their original or normal horizontal positions immediately upon the ingot becoming disassociated therefrom.

When the overturned ingot becomes disassociated from dog 160, it rests on conveyor 16 immediately in front of cam-actuating arm 132 and as said ingot continues to move with said conveyor, it pushes arm 132 and cam wheel 118 clockwisely to an extent only sufiicient to cause cam roller 124 to roll off the high cam spot, that it has been on, into the next adjacent low spot of the cam surface of the cam wheel, thus causing dog-carrying arms to pivot downwardly to their lowered positions indicated in broken lines in Figs. 2 and 8, wherein dogs 93 and do not protrude above the level of the upper run of conveyor '16.

At about the time this lowering of said dogs occurs, the next ingot received by conveyor '16 has not quite reached position a2 and, with no dogs in its path, it is pushed with said conveyor without being overturned. Upon reaching arm 132, it pushes the latter and cam wheel 1 13 to cause cam roller 124 to ride up onto the next high spot on the cam wheel, thereby raising arms 90 and dogs 98 and 100 to enable the latter to cooperate with the conveyor 16 and pushers to overturn the next infrequency of'delivery of ingots to the conveyor =16. Such delivery, of course, must be so timed that one ingot does not approach dog 98 until the preceding ingot actuates arm 132. By overturning alternate ingots as just described, they fit together intimately to make up a compact layer of ingots for stacking.

As the pushers 170 push each ingot from turn-over conveyor 16 to receiving conveyor 26, the latter carries the ingot forwardly only to about the extent of such push,

as conveyor 26} is not power-driven and may, if desired, be subjected to braking means (not shown) to prevent coasting or overriding. In this wa the ingots, considerably spaced onconveyor16, form a compact layer on conveyor 24). When formation of such a layer has been completed, the leading ingot of the layer pushes against and actuates switch arm 190 which controls electrically operated pick-up devices (not shown) which pick up and stack the formed layers in a well understood manner.

It will readily be understood that by substituting cam wheels 118 having difierent cam-surface contours, the apparatus may be adapted for different turn-over sequences. For example, it may be adapted for forming a layer of ingots in which alternate pairs of ingots are overturned or in which one ingot is overturned, then two ingots not overturned, then one overturned, etc.

If desirable, also, suitable means (not shown) may be provided for preventing backlash or coasting or overriding of cam wheel 11-8. Such means, for example, may be a continuously applied brake or a suitable escapement mechanism.

Although certain changes or supplemental devices have been suggested, it should be apparent that various other changes may be made without, however, departing from the invention as set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. An ingot-handling mechanism comprising a sub- 7 said conveyor and having a portion positioned to engage and push an upper portion of said ingot to turn it over on said conveyor, said conveyor comprising a pair of similar, similarly operating, endless chains in spaced, sideby-side relationship and such pushing means being similarly provided in pairs at corresponding points on said chains; the pushing means of such a pair on each chain comprising a pusher plate pivotally associated with said chain -for. pivotal movement in a substantially vertical plane extending longitudinally of the conveyor, and said plate having means associated therewith for restraining said plate against such pivotal movement and also having an upper portion which, when the plateis thus restrained, extends above said conveyor sufficiently to engage, for pushing purposes, an upper portion of an ingot on said conveyor.

2. An ingot-handling mechanism according to claim 1, said restraining means comprising a pair of spaced rollers on said plate and a fixed guide bar'in parallelism with said conveyor and extending between said paired rollers to prevent material pivotal movement of said plate relatively to said conveyor.

3. An ingot-handling mechanism according to claim 2, said conveyor having parallel upper and lower runs and opposite, semicircular end runs interconnecting said upper and lower runs, said fixed guide bar having a horizontal portion paralleling said upper run and an integral, semicircular portion paralleling one of said end runs wherein the conveyor moves arcuately and upwardly, said semicircular portion terminating at the bottom of said upwardly moving end run and said horizontal guide-bar portion terminating adjacent to the top of the other end run, which moves downwardly, said restraining means further comprising a fixed guide bar substantially paralleling said lower run and adapted to engage such pushing means moving downwardly on said downwardly moving end run in a non-restrained pendulous condition and guide said pushing means along said bottom run in a non-pendulous attitude in which said paired rollers are positioned to enter into association with said semicircular guide-bar portion at opposite sides thereof.

4. An ingot-handling mechanism according to claim 3, said paired rollers being toward one side of the pivot point of said plate and the latter having an extension, at the opposite side of said pivot point, adapted to engage and push an ingot on the upper run of the conveyor.

5. An ingot-handling mechanism comprising a substantially horizontally disposed, continuously driven, endless conveyor adapted to support and carry transversely disposed ingots. therealong, ingot-intercepting means fixed adjacent to said conveyor in the path of a lower portion of an ingot on said conveyor, and ingot-pushing means constrained to move with and in the same direction as said conveyor and having a portion positioned to engage and push an upper portion of said ingot to turn it over on said conveyor, said ingot-intercepting means being movable between a raised, ingot-intercepting position and a lowered, non-intercepting position, and the mechanism including operating means, responsive tomovement of an ingot on said conveyor and adapted to move said intercepting means from either to the other of its two mentioned positions, to enable said intercepting means to function with respect'to some but not others of ingots moving on said conveyor.

6. An ingot-handling mechanism according to claim 5, said operating means comprising a cam wheel cooperating with said intercepting means to raise and lower the latter and a ratchet mechanism'arranged to be actuated by an ingot moving horizontally with said conveyor and adapted to intermittently turn said cam wheel; the rising and falling of said intercepting means being governed by the cam surface contour of said cam wheel.

7. An ingot-handling mechanism comprising a substantially horizontally disposed, continuously driven, endless conveyor adapted to support and carry transversely disposed ingots therealong, ingot-intercepting means fixed adjacent to said conveyor in the path of a lower portion of an ingot on said conveyor, and ingot-pushing means constrained to move with and in the same direction as said conveyor and having a portion positioned to engage and push an upper portion of said ingot to turn it over on said conveyor, said intercepting means comprising an arm mounted for pivotal movement inwhich its free end moves up and down between a raised position in which the intercepting means are in intercepting position and a lowered position in which the intercepting means are in non-intercepting position, and a dog, pivoted to said arm and adapted, when the latter is in its raised position, to receive an ingot moving non-angularly with said conveyor and arrest its non-angular movement and pivot upwardly with said ingot in response to said pushing means, whereby to at least partially overturn said ingot.

8. An ingot-handling mechanism comprising a substantially horizontally disposed, continuously driven, endless conveyor adapted to support and carry transversely disposed ingots therealong, ingot-intercepting means fixed adjacent to said conveyor in the path of a lower portion of an ingot on said conveyor, and ingot-pushing means constrained to move with and in the same direction as said conveyor and having a portion positioned to engage and push an upper portion of said ingot to turn iting an arm mounted for pivotal movement in which its free end moves up and down between a raised position in which the intercepting means are in intercepting position and a lowered position in which the intercepting means are in non-intercepting position, and plural dogs, pivoted to said arm in tandem, a first of said dogs, when said arm is in its said raised position, being adapted to receive an ingot moving nonangularly with said conveyor and to pivot with said ingot in response to said pushing means to partially overturn said ingot, another of said dogs being adapted to receive the partially overturned ingot from said first dog and to pivot with said ingot to further overturn the latter, still in response to said pushing means, to a point from which the ingot may angularly gravitate to a completely overturned position on the conveyor.

9. An ingot-handling mechanism according to claim 8, said dogs being limited in their said ingot-turning pivotal movement to enable them to gravitate angularly back to their ingot-receiving positions upon a partially overturned ingot becoming disassociated therefrom.

10. An ingot-handling mechanism comprising a continuously driven, endless conveyor adapted to horizontally carry transversely disposed ingots, pivotal ingot intercepting means adapted for disposition in a position adjacent to and partly above said conveyor and adapted to intercept an ingot on the conveyor, and ingot-pushing means connected to said conveyor in such position thereon v as to adapt the latter means to engage and push an ingot on said ingot-intercepting means; the last-mentioned means comprising a pair of tandem-disposed pivotal tumblers, of which, in response to pushing of an ingot by said ingot-pushing means, a first of the tumblers is adapted to receive thereon an ingot from said conveyor and to pivot with said ingot to partly overturn the latter, and a second of the tumblers is adapted to receive said ingot from said first tumbler and to pivot With said ingot to further overturn the latter and replace it upon said conveyor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Houten Mar. 30, 1926 

